STAF-1 Build

[Flyingpickels]

That is one hell of a carve! I like the look of that, how did you do that? Belt sander or did you take the majority of it off with hand tools?

[FrankenWashie]

That is one hell of a carve! I like the look of that, how did you do that? Belt sander or did you take the majority of it off with hand tools?

I used a battery powered angle grinder with an 80 grit flap disc for the roughing out. Then tidied with a Shinto rasp, smaller curved rasp and a StewMac curved scraper.
The nose curve was bandsaw followed by Shinto rasp and sandpaper wrapped around big diameter dowel cauls.

It’s all really just replication of stuff I’ve seen done by others, but even in raw form with the neck screwed in it felt so much better than the standard big square chunk, it’s a mod I will probably make on my Korean Deluxe ST, if I can bear to pull that One apart.

[McCreed]

Rounding off the corners is a mod that is done by a number of folk, it varies from a small cutting of the bottom corner through to some serious reshaping and relocating of screw positions.

So from FrankenWashie's case in point of extreme, here's my case in point for mild...



I went a bit conservatively here, but with my next build I will be taking off more. Despite the minimal approach on this one, it does make a very noticeable difference in feel and reach.
I haven't levelled & polished this one yet, so please excuse the orange peel .

@ Pickles - this is the alder body I mentioned earlier. It has been a bit experimental as it has a silver metallic base coat with blue tinted "clear" coat over. When it's polished it has an alomost peralesance to it.

[Flyingpickels]

McCreed I really dig that blue, I bet it'll really shimmer in light especially once you've gotten it all polished up. I might even have to borrow that rounded corner idea maybe even add a bevel to where the neck bolts on almost seems like how the strats should have come from the factory. I don't think I quite have the skill to pull off what Franken has done at least not yet haha.

[Flyingpickels]

Hello all, Small update I thought I'd share what I've done with the neck so far. I cutout a strat ish headstock shape then, I routed off 2mm off the top and glued on some black walnut, I also dyed the neck blue to match the body. I'm thinking of doing an oil finish for the neck. I just need to find a 10mm drill bit to finish drilling out the holes. Are the oil finishes durable enough for such an application?

[king casey]

Beware, oil will turn the blue into a shade of green.
Better to use a clear acrylic.

cheers, Mark.

[Simon Barden]

The oil finishes (the hardening, polymerising ones, not the straight oil types) are durable enough, but as King Casey says, they have a yellow tint (which also increases with age), so tend to turn blue finishes rather green.

[Flyingpickels]

Thanks for the tip! I decided to take all of your advice and go with a lacquer clear coat. I also decided to attempt to do a wooden pick guard out of 3mm thick black walnut, which turned out to be quite the challenge as the grain tended to split. Stabilising the grain with some CA glue seemed to help and if I where to do it again, I'd likely go with some thicker walnut. The trem cover and battery cover are going to be made from the same wood. I also decided to route away some wood on the headstock and glue matching walnut there as well. The walnut has osmo oil finish on it.

[Simon Barden]

You might have more success by laminating some sheets of walnut veneer together for strength, with the grain running at different angles. Or else by using a sheet of something else as a backing.

[JimC]

And if you laminated walnut/something pale/walnut you would get a sandwich effect which might or might not be pleasing.